RoadPro

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We sent one of our low-profile sat-domes today to Calmer Cruising, a company offering luxury widebeam canal boat holidays on the beautiful River Thames.

You can’t beat a leisurely trip down the river to help wash away the cares of everyday, working life but, when it rains (which it usually does in my experience), it’s good to know that you’re going to be able to sit back and watch all your favourite channels, wherever you happen to have moored (watch out for trees though!)

David & Christine Burton bought their superb Burstner Elegance from Becks Motorhomes in Norfolk. They’re delighted with the vehicle and also with the in-motion sat-dome supplied by RoadPro. Because they bought the Burstner with the dome already installed, they weren’t sure what model it was. After visiting us at Daventry, they now know that it’s an in-motion model which means that, if they wanted to, they could listen to British radio stations as they’re driving through Europe.

The Burtons are “really pleased” with their RoadPro dome. They tell us that, using their Sky receiver, they even managed to pick up BBC & ITV in Berlin! According to our footprint maps, Berlin is well outside the dome’s reception range for Astra 2D but satellite TV is a very strange thing and anything (almost) can happen. Sounds as though we need to make a test trip in the Laika.

We welcomed our first Burstner Ixeo to Daventry recently. It’s being given a long-term test by motorhome magazine MMM and Deputy Editor Rachel Stothert had asked us to install a CTEK battery-to-battery unit in it.

MMM readers will be able to see how the CTEK unit performs in forthcoming issues.

With just a few minutes to look round, we were totally impressed by the Ixeo. It’s only tiny but a really clever overhead bed arrangement means that there’s loads of room for two or even more people.

Derek Redmond became an Olympic legend in 1992 when he completed the 400 metres semi-final in Barcelona despite tearing his hamstring 250 metres from the finish and being helped to the line by his father. After successful stints at basketball and rugby football, Derek now has his own motorcycle racing team which competes in the Hottrax endurance series.

Derek carries his motorcycle in the back of this custom-built transporter which was fitted with just about everything needed apart from a good TV reception system. Now, it’s got that too in the form of a Camos crank-up dish. Good luck Derek and do be careful!!

Stuart, a farmer somewhere out in the countryside, has been having a problem with birds in his fields. What better way to deal with the flying pests than to wave the flag of St George at them? So Stuart happened to be visiting our Ebay RoadPro outlet store and noticed that we had a very good deal on a job lot of 100 St George flags (which an over-enthusiastic but patriotic former member of staff purchased many years ago.)

Stuart sent us some pictures of the flags in their new location including this one. Can you see any birds? NO!!

Another practical and efficient product from RoadPro.

CTEK, the company behind (probably) the world’s finest battery chargers has published a new blog today and, if you have an interest in batteries, it’s very good indeed!!

You can get to it by clicking on this link: http://blog.ctek.com

Of course, now’s the time to be thinking about getting your vehicle batteries fit for winter – whether or not they’ll be used, they need to be looked after. Whatever the vehicle, whatever the batteries, whatever the weather and whatever they’ll be doing, using a CTEK charger to keep them in good condition is guaranteed to save you money and grief. For more info on the CTEK range, click here.

A: There isn’t one! It’s a nice idea but there is no connection at all between the Curtiss-Wright Corporation whose history goes all the way back to the time of the Wright Brothers’ pioneering aviation work and Curtis Wright who started making “travel-trailers” in Los Angeles before the Second World War.

Wally Byams worked with Curtis Wright but left the company to set up his own Airstream manufacturing facility. Curtis Wright sold up in 1949 but the trailers continued to be made under the name Silver Streak into the 1970s.

Curtis Wright trailers (as the Americans say) are as rare as a very rare thing indeed but, at a secret location in the very heart of rural England, I found two today, along with what seemed like dozens of Airstreams in various states of repair.

Although it’s just a shell at the moment, one of the Airstreams is being fitted out with the very latest in caravan technology – a Crystop Internet system, a Rolls AGM 145Ah battery, a Sterling inverter / charger combination and a 2kW iNEO generator. I couldn’t take a photo of it so this one of a Curtis Wright model will have to do.

When the Airstream is finished, we will hopefully be able to put up a post showing it in its finished glory.

Just got an e-mail from EdExcel – one of the organisations that arranges GCSE and A-level exams in British schools. They want to use some material from our website in exam papers and we are happy to oblige. I think a few new subjects should be added to the school syllabus: Operating a satellite TV system on a boat or in a motorhome, Calculating which inverter would be needed to run a hairdryer and, maybe, healthy cooking and eating in a truck.

The product that EdExel want to incorporate into their test paper is our 12V beverage heater.